Gratitude gets a lot of attention in November and December. Between Thanksgiving which for many is a time of giving thanks and the quickly approaching Christmas which can bring out greed in the sweetest child, many parents struggle how to raise children who are truly grateful all year.
From “The Lord has done it this very day; let us rejoice today and be glad.” (Psalm 118:24 NIV) to “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” (James 1:17 NIV), God makes it very clear he expects our gratitude.
There are probably many things you can do as you raise your children to help mold their hearts to be grateful. These are a few of my favorite:
Someone has taken the concept of idle hands being the devil’s workshop and decided children and teens should not have a spare moment of unscheduled time. Schools are pressured to give lots of homework and keep kids at the building for as many hours as possible. Extra curricular activities often demand young people practice or perform six to seven days a week – all year. We run our kids from activity to activity, coming home in time for them to do homework and get inadequate amounts of sleep. If our kids do have a rare free moment, all they have the energy to do is zone out in front of a screen – watching videos or playing games.
Kids today are busy. Not just “I need to run from class to practice” busy, but the kind of busy that used to be reserved for high powered executives. I have teen after teen tell me of regularly living on three to four hours sleep a night. After all of their activities and classes, the remainder of their time is spent doing homework – leaving little time for anything other than catching a couple of hours of sleep. Even the youngest of children have similar schedules.
Digital photography is amazing! Even though I’m not a great photographer, digital technology lets me play around with taking pictures without spending a fortune on developing photos. It’s also a wonderful tool for helping teach kids how to see God.
If you want your children to be faithful, active, productive Christians as adults, they need to be able to see God easily. Don’t worry. I am not talking about eerie visions or random voices. Your children need to be able to see that God is alive and active today. Not only in the world, but in the lives of your children as individuals.